160 SHRIKES. 



breeding-coops ; and a gentleman who lived in a part of North 

 America where several of them harboured, actually discovered 

 them taking his favourite singing-birds out of the cages which 

 hung by his window. 



Their usual food is, however, insects ; but whether birds, 

 mice, or insects, the same singular propensity has been re- 

 marked, that of frequently impaling the object they have 

 caught on a thorn or pointed stick. That it thus destroys, 

 when opportunity occurs, a far greater quantity of living 

 subjects than it can possibly consume, is unquestionable ; for 

 they have been seen to be all day long seizing insects, as if 

 actuated by a desire of destroying life, rather than procuring 

 a store of food. This apparently wanton cruelty may, how- 

 ever, be turned to good account ; for we have no doubt, that 

 it was by a species of this bird called the Collared Shrike that 

 the following check was given to a plague of locusts. The 

 account was sent from the Cape of Good Hope in 1829. Dur- 

 ing the spring of that year, the locusts abounded to such a 

 degree on the southern coasts of Africa, that the whole country 

 was completely ravaged, and the most serious apprehensions 

 were entertained for any renewal of vegetation which the rains 

 might promote, when the locust-birds made their appearance 

 in vast flocks, and successfully interfered. The writer adds, 

 that their mode of attacking and destroying and impaling these 

 destructive insects was quite extraordinary, and far surpassed 

 all human efforts. 



Mr. Selby, a celebrated English naturalist, was fortunate 

 enough to see the whole process of pinning a Hedge-sparrow 

 by one of these Butcher-birds. Having seized his victim, he 

 immediately killed it, and then hovered with it in his bill for 

 a short time over the hedge apparently occupied in selecting 

 a thorn suited to his purpose. Upon disturbing it, and 

 advancing to the spot, he found the Sparrow already firmly 

 fixed by the tendons of the wing, at the selected twig. In 

 another instance, a Shrike was observed busily occupied near 

 a thorn hedge ; on examination, three frogs, and as many 

 mice, were found regularly spitted on thorns. AVith the 



